Sovereign Bank Imposes overdraft protection contrary to my instructions Ripff Edison New Jersey

FIGHT BACK!


If anyone is having ANY problems with Soveriegn Bank and need to file a complaint against them please do so. They state that there is no place to file a complaint but there is. Massachusetts does not have jurisdiction over this crooked banking institution so they forward your complaints to the right people. I am submitting that information in this post for all who need it.

Office of Thrift Supervision
Department of the Treasury
10 Exchange Place, 18th Floor
Jersey City, NJ 07302
1-800-253-2181

Office Of Thrift Supervision
Harborside Financial Center
Plaza Five, Suite 1600
Jersey City, NJ 07311

Fax# 201-413-7541

The fax number is for written signed complaints.

Good Luck

I, too, did not realize MY bank (Compass) automatically put into force the "Overdraft" mechanism. It only took once when my bank account got totally messed up from ONE check. Very, very difficult to straighten out and meantime, this bank took upon itself to provide this very expensive 'insurance' of overdraft protection - AT MY EXPENSE - as if I needed another expenditure!

I agree with the complaintent!! Banks forget who works for whom! By the way, I no longer do business with someone who does me this way. You are free to do the same. This is the only true way "to fight back". Thanks for reading.

The fault here is with you. I state this, from the sketchy information your provide, it seems you are not reconciling your bank statements each month.

First, let me state, I am against the "courtesy overdraft plans". U.S. Banks instituted these plans several years ago as a cash cow. They are pure profit for the banks in the tens of millions of dollars each year. The "plan" will pay any charge/debit/check presented against your account, in some cases even cash withdrawals at the ATM, without your prior knowledge, and charge you a fee.

The banks are not required to get your "permission" or an application for the plan. They have circumvented banking regulations by classifying these plans as courtesy payments rather than loans. A true overdraft protecion plan is basically a revolving loan and must be applied for, and is subject to credit approval.

The banks typically "notify" an account holder the courtesy payments are available by including a small flyer or other notification with your monthly statement shortly after you open the account. Typically the notice is created to look like advertising and most consumers discard it without reading it.

If you had been reconciling your monthly statements you would have noticed you were overdrawn, yet payments had been made to cover your insufficient balance.

Also Debit and credit cards are two wholly separate financial instruments.

No disrespect intended, but you really need to be more attentive to your financial dealings or you will find a good amount of trouble in your future.

Overdraft protection is a loan the bank issues to cover when someone overdraws his checking account. I was in bad financial position so I didn't want a loan, which would mean paying interest. I can and do balance my checking account regularly.

There isn't a monthly charge for this kind of "protection." I agree it was sloppy of me to allow someone who was billing me monthly let me know they could no longer get money from my account, but they bill me in advance, and offered me no alternative way of paying the bill other than automatic withdrawals. If they were unable to withdraw funds, they simply would have notified me, and within a few days, I would have switched them to an account they could take funds from.

No harm. No foul.

Sovereign, remember, didn't even have the courtesy to tell me they were providing this protection. I had no idea that I had it, and so I didn't check for it.

Moving is stressful, and I thought I could rest easy letting my account pay an ongoing bill until it was emptied, or until there were no longer funds to cover the bill.

I didn't suspect this bank could or would lend me money without my signature agreeing to such a loan, but that in essence is what happened.

This is different from a bad check in that there are no fees if someone attempts to withdraw money through a debit card and there aren't funds available to cover that. It is simply declined just like when you have insufficient credit on a credit card.

Had Sovereign followed my instructions, which is not to provide me with overdraft protection, I wouldn't have filed this report. Bottom line: I didn't ask for it; didn't want it; told them so; and they went ahead and lent me money, against my express wishes, and didn't even tell me they'd do it until well after the fact.

How am I wrong????

Overdraft protection is a loan the bank issues to cover when someone overdraws his checking account. I was in bad financial position so I didn't want a loan, which would mean paying interest. I can and do balance my checking account regularly.

There isn't a monthly charge for this kind of "protection." I agree it was sloppy of me to allow someone who was billing me monthly let me know they could no longer get money from my account, but they bill me in advance, and offered me no alternative way of paying the bill other than automatic withdrawals. If they were unable to withdraw funds, they simply would have notified me, and within a few days, I would have switched them to an account they could take funds from.

No harm. No foul.

Sovereign, remember, didn't even have the courtesy to tell me they were providing this protection. I had no idea that I had it, and so I didn't check for it.

Moving is stressful, and I thought I could rest easy letting my account pay an ongoing bill until it was emptied, or until there were no longer funds to cover the bill.

I didn't suspect this bank could or would lend me money without my signature agreeing to such a loan, but that in essence is what happened.

This is different from a bad check in that there are no fees if someone attempts to withdraw money through a debit card and there aren't funds available to cover that. It is simply declined just like when you have insufficient credit on a credit card.

Had Sovereign followed my instructions, which is not to provide me with overdraft protection, I wouldn't have filed this report. Bottom line: I didn't ask for it; didn't want it; told them so; and they went ahead and lent me money, against my express wishes, and didn't even tell me they'd do it until well after the fact.

How am I wrong????

Overdraft protection is a loan the bank issues to cover when someone overdraws his checking account. I was in bad financial position so I didn't want a loan, which would mean paying interest. I can and do balance my checking account regularly.

There isn't a monthly charge for this kind of "protection." I agree it was sloppy of me to allow someone who was billing me monthly let me know they could no longer get money from my account, but they bill me in advance, and offered me no alternative way of paying the bill other than automatic withdrawals. If they were unable to withdraw funds, they simply would have notified me, and within a few days, I would have switched them to an account they could take funds from.

No harm. No foul.

Sovereign, remember, didn't even have the courtesy to tell me they were providing this protection. I had no idea that I had it, and so I didn't check for it.

Moving is stressful, and I thought I could rest easy letting my account pay an ongoing bill until it was emptied, or until there were no longer funds to cover the bill.

I didn't suspect this bank could or would lend me money without my signature agreeing to such a loan, but that in essence is what happened.

This is different from a bad check in that there are no fees if someone attempts to withdraw money through a debit card and there aren't funds available to cover that. It is simply declined just like when you have insufficient credit on a credit card.

Had Sovereign followed my instructions, which is not to provide me with overdraft protection, I wouldn't have filed this report. Bottom line: I didn't ask for it; didn't want it; told them so; and they went ahead and lent me money, against my express wishes, and didn't even tell me they'd do it until well after the fact.

How am I wrong????

Overdraft protection is a loan the bank issues to cover when someone overdraws his checking account. I was in bad financial position so I didn't want a loan, which would mean paying interest. I can and do balance my checking account regularly.

There isn't a monthly charge for this kind of "protection." I agree it was sloppy of me to allow someone who was billing me monthly let me know they could no longer get money from my account, but they bill me in advance, and offered me no alternative way of paying the bill other than automatic withdrawals. If they were unable to withdraw funds, they simply would have notified me, and within a few days, I would have switched them to an account they could take funds from.

No harm. No foul.

Sovereign, remember, didn't even have the courtesy to tell me they were providing this protection. I had no idea that I had it, and so I didn't check for it.

Moving is stressful, and I thought I could rest easy letting my account pay an ongoing bill until it was emptied, or until there were no longer funds to cover the bill.

I didn't suspect this bank could or would lend me money without my signature agreeing to such a loan, but that in essence is what happened.

This is different from a bad check in that there are no fees if someone attempts to withdraw money through a debit card and there aren't funds available to cover that. It is simply declined just like when you have insufficient credit on a credit card.

Had Sovereign followed my instructions, which is not to provide me with overdraft protection, I wouldn't have filed this report. Bottom line: I didn't ask for it; didn't want it; told them so; and they went ahead and lent me money, against my express wishes, and didn't even tell me they'd do it until well after the fact.

How am I wrong????

I do not understand this ROR. I have had banking services for many years but have never had the need or used overdraft protection. My first questions are about overdraft protection. What exactly does overdraft protection do for a person? The name itself, implies that it is for protection for when you make more debits than credits, to your account. Is there a monthly service fee for the protection? Is there a small charge for each transaction that uses the protection? I ask that, because you never write that you are ever charged for overdraft protection. If you were being charged, wouldn't it show that on your monthly statement? Your letter implies that you had the account for some time.

It was puzzling to read that you did not want overdraft protection because you had bad finances. Because of your bad finances, I would think you would need the extra protection. You wrote that after you moved, you continued to let automatic payment deductions be made on an account that you were not going to maintain. That you were going to let the account run out of money. That your way of maintaining the account was to wait for the creditor to notify you that you had no money in it? That is very strange book keeping. If a person has automatic withdrawals from an account but does not have the money to cover them, doesn't it count as a bad check? If so, wouldn't there be a charge for INSF?

Did the bank go ahead and make the payments of your automatic withdrawals, or did they just charge you for the insufficient funds? You never explain what the actual charges are for.

Didn't you give the bank a forwarding address? Apparently they had your new address since they sent you the fee notice. Every bank that I know of, also offers online services to review the account as well as sending a monthly statement. Many even offer a 24 hour call number to get current account information.

A natural question is why didn't you change the automatic withdrawals over to you new account? You never write that you set up a new account in your new location. You imply that you would set up a new account after you finally ran out of money in your old account. Most people would have just set up a new account and transferred the funds into that account. After that, it would have been easy to set up the automatic withdrawals from that new account. Seems like you intentionally brought the problems on yourself. When does being out of work, deserve sympathy, for issues that you intentionally created?